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pypdf and PyPDF2 possible Infinite Loop when a comment isn't followed by a character

Moderate severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jun 27, 2023 in py-pdf/pypdf • Updated Nov 11, 2023

Package

pip PyPDF2 (pip)

Affected versions

>= 2.2.0, <= 3.0.1

Patched versions

None
pip pypdf (pip)
>= 3.1.0, < 3.9.0
3.9.0

Description

Impact

An attacker who uses this vulnerability can craft a PDF which leads to an infinite loop if __parse_content_stream is executed. This infinite loop blocks the current process and can utilize a single core of the CPU by 100%. It does not affect memory usage. That is, for example, the case if the user extracted text from such a PDF.

Example Code and a PDF that causes the issue:

from pypdf import PdfReader

# https://objects.githubusercontent.com/github-production-repository-file-5c1aeb/3119517/11367871?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWNJYAX4CSVEH53A%2F20230627%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20230627T201018Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Signature=d71c8fd9181c4875f0c04d563b6d32f1d4da6e7b2e6be2f14479ce4ecdc9c8b2&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&actor_id=1658117&key_id=0&repo_id=3119517&response-content-disposition=attachment%3Bfilename%3DMiFO_LFO_FEIS_NOA_Published.3.pdf&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf
reader = PdfReader("MiFO_LFO_FEIS_NOA_Published.3.pdf")
page = reader.pages[0]
page.extract_text()

The issue was introduced with py-pdf/pypdf#969

Patches

The issue was fixed with py-pdf/pypdf#1828

Workarounds

It is recommended to upgrade to pypdf>=3.9.0. PyPDF2 users should migrate to pypdf.

If you cannot update your version of pypdf, you should modify pypdf/generic/_data_structures.py:

OLD: while peek not in (b"\r", b"\n"):
NEW: while peek not in (b"\r", b"\n", b""):

References

@MartinThoma MartinThoma published to py-pdf/pypdf Jun 27, 2023
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jun 27, 2023
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jun 30, 2023
Reviewed Jun 30, 2023
Last updated Nov 11, 2023

Severity

Moderate

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS score

0.049%
(20th percentile)

Weaknesses

CVE ID

CVE-2023-36464

GHSA ID

GHSA-4vvm-4w3v-6mr8

Source code

Credits

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